Is 2013 Gaming’s Greatest Year Ever?

I remember around February of this year, I read an article that stated 2013 would be a boring year for gaming. At the time of reading, I thought to myself how stupid that was, seeing as how Bioshock: Infinite, God of War: Ascension, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Gears of War: Judgement, Tomb Raider, The Last of Us, Grand Theft Auto V and more were all due out this year! I personally thought it had the potential to be one of the greatest gaming years ever, and that was all before Sony sent out their invitation that started the next generation of consoles!

With a line-up as strong as that, not even mentioning surprise hits like Guacamelee, Gone Home and Ni No Kuni, 2013 has been easily one of the strongest years for gaming ever. It’s for this reason that I never understand it when people claim gaming is terrible now, or better during the Nintendo/Sega era; opinions like that stem from pure nostalgia.

Now, that isn’t to say those were bad consoles or they produced bad games, but with the sheer diversity of titles on the market today – be they massive action blockbusters like GTA V, story-driven epics like The Last of Us or downloadable 2D side-scrollers like Guacamelee – there is something for everyone.

In 2013, we got epic experiences and memorable mini-games that will stick with us for years. The Last of Us has a Metacritic rating of 95, Bioshock Infinite 94, Tomb Raider 87, Splinter Cell: Blacklist 84, Guacamelee 88, Gone Home 89 and Grand Theft Auto V 97. That’s one hell of an incredible list of ratings, the lowest score being 84, which works out at an average of 90.

I don’t even have to explain how incredible that is. With scores like that, it is clear that 2013 has been one of the greatest years for games to date. I say to date because Beyond: Two Souls, Battlefield 4, Gran Turismo 6, Titanfall, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Watch Dogs, Dead Rising 3, Knack, Killzone: Shadowfall, Drive Club and Batman: Arkham Origins, are all yet to come.

With the great games we’ve already gotten our hands on, those yet to be released and the two new behemoth consoles on the way, I honestly can’t think of a more exciting time to be a gamer! Ever! Never before have new consoles had such strong build-ups and launch line-ups; the PS3 had Motorstorm and Resistance, the latter which was a fantastic game but a brand new IP that failed to sell systems.

Having a new Killzone as a launch title is a huge selling point for the PS4, and adding family-friendly Knack and Drive Club to the exclusives, as well as the great third-party titles and Destiny, the PS4 has an insane line-up. Xbox One also has a great line-up with Titanfall, Dead Rising 3, Ryse: Son of Rome and Forza Motorsport 5, which they didn’t have with the 360.

The strength of the new consoles has been solidified through pre-order figures; Sony has sold over a million PS4s already, and Gamestop say over 1.5 Million people are on their first-to-know list for the next PS4 shipment. To top this all off, Sony estimate that they will sell over 5 million units by March 2014.

Now, we haven’t gotten any pre-order numbers from Microsoft, most likely because it doesn’t rival PS4, but we can assume it’s still a big number. Even though the Wii U has been a commercial failure to date, stronger times seem on the horizon, with games like Super Mario, Super Smash Bros., Mario Kart and a new Zelda. If the excitement for these titles, however, will be enough to save Wii U remains to be seen.

The market’s slowest selling systems, the Wii U and the PS Vita, have both recently received price drops, which will hopefully give them both a much-needed boost. Much like the Wii U, 2013 and 2014 will be a tell-tale time-period for the PS Vita.

Now that the system has received a price drop, a new model, many new games, Vita TV and the system’s functionality as a peripheral screen for PS4 (allowing remote play), it is clear that Sony are putting all of their eggs in the basket for the Vita and trying to make it a must-have system. The Vita is already an incredible system with many great games, but add in even more titles, Vita TV, PS4 and a price-drop and the system truly is a must-have.

As has been the case for the past few years, Playstation has been the stronger system, largely due to exclusive titles like the Last of Us, Sly Raccoon, God of War and the upcoming Beyond: Two Souls and Gran Turismo 6. On top of this, Sony also has their incredibly successful PS4 reveal and launch build-up, which really solidified their position as the hardcore gamer’s system-of-choice.

Xbox had a much more turbulent year, obviously due to the confusion and anger surrounding their policies over the Xbox One. After the DRM, always-online, always-on camera, lack of games (in the beginning) and the big price-point, fans became very jaded with the company. After all the negativity squared at the company, they have done a 180 and changed all their policies, making the difference between Xbox One and PS4 minimal.

So, 2013 was not Microsoft’s finest year, but they have pulled a lot of momentum back, and with a very strong launch line-up, things can only go up from here. The PS4 will undoubtedly have a stronger launch, and probably a better year, but that will only have a small reflection on the long-term outcome for the eight generation, as seen with the PS3 and 360.

Game-wise 2013 has been amazing so far. Competition-wise 2013 saw the biggest shots fired between Microsoft and Sony to date. Commercially 2013 was also great for companies; sure, new entries into the God of War and Gears of War franchises both undersold, but The Last of Us greatly exceeded expectations, and GTA V has become the fastest selling entertainment product of all time, making over $1 billion in 3 days. 2013 has provided us with more to talk about than any other year before, be it the games, the new consoles, the controversies or the reignited fanboy wars.

With some of the greatest games ever and more to come, new consoles due to be released, fierce competition between companies and price-drops for struggling systems, I really find it hard to imagine how 2013 could be any more exciting.

Discussion

11 Comments

I could not agree with you more, I have been amazed with what has come out this year and with still FIFA 14 and COD:Ghosts and PS4 and Xbox One to come its still looking eciting even though theres only a few months left!

I can imagine the meeting before production for the next instalment begins. Director walks in and says:”Ok guys, let’s change the 3 to a 4, use some fancy words explain changes to gameplay we ain’t changing, new story, new box art. Any questions?”…

Hell ya. And it isn’t even the great holiday season yet and we already have multiple masterpieces including GTAV, Last of us, and bio shock infinite. Cant wait for Watchdogs and the new halo next year, hopefully its on the 360

When I clicked on this articles link on n4g.com, I should have knows that such a stupid heading would be WC.

I hate to point out the obvious, but with the constant improving off technology, every year is the best gaming year yet as it happens. It goes without saying to the extent that anyone thinking it needs to be stated may be mentally handicapped.

It really isn’t though. This year the biggest games weren’t CoD or a sports games. Instead we got the TLoU, Tomb Raider(a successful reboot of a gaming icon which is respectable in its own right), Bioshock Infinte, GTA 5, and much more to come.

It really is a big year, because obviously with the new consoles coming out many developers are using the new tech, and sony and microsoft are trying their best to have a unique selling point.
GTAV’s long awaited release has finally come, and new I.P’s (Watch_dogs eeeek) coming out topped off with every ones favorite annual released (including my favorite franchise of Assassins Creed) It certainly is looking to be a big year. I normally making a point of buying 2 games a year on launch day, and waiting for the price to drop on the others.
But this year I have been forced by sheer excitement to break my rule already owning GTAV and eagerly waiting for AC4, Watch_dogs and Arkham origins.
Is it the biggest year ever?… I’m going to say no, but its by far the biggest in a long time, and its going to be a long time till another reaches this scale.

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